This invention relates to telecommunication switching, and, in particular, to the provision of paid advertisements during ring back period to the call originator.
In the current public service provider local market, extreme pressure exists on maximizing revenue to offset costs associated with providing satisfactory customer service. Within the prior art, local public service providers have attempted to maximize their revenue by offering a variety of expensive service features to the users. These features include voice messaging, caller ID, etc. for which the user pays a fixed amount per month. However, such features that are paid for by the users have not generated sufficient revenue to upgrade standard service provided to the customers. The local public service providers (such as the Regional Bell Operating Companies) have also requested that they be allowed to enter the long distance market. However, because of government regulations and requirements, the local public service providers have not made sufficient in roads into the long distance market. The local public service providers need a new source of revenue and one that does not require that their customers directly pay for this new source of revenue.
Within the prior art, it is known for long distance service providers, such as ATandT, to provide an identification announcement during a call set up to reassure the call originator that they are using the long distance service provider that they wish to use. In addition, some long distance service providers also provide a notification of the time of day for the region of the called party. This information is provided so that the call originator can be aware of the time of day at the location they are calling. In addition, some local public service providers and long distance service providers provide an option upon the called telephone being busy for the call originator to select certain features. This is done by listing the features to the call originator as an audio message when it is determined that the called telephone is busy.
The aforementioned utilization of the time during which the call is being set up or when a busy called terminal is discovered do not generate additional revenue for the public service provider if the customer chooses not to select the feature.
This invention is directing to solving these and other problems and shortcomings of the prior art. Illustratively according to the invention, when a call is placed by a calling party to a called party, during the time that the calling party would normally hear the ring back tones, a public service provider transmits instead an, audio message to the calling party. This audio message is an advertisement that is paid for by a third party. If the calling party wishes more information concerning the advertisement, the calling party indicates this desire either by a spoken command or by actuation of a multi-frequency key on the telephone hand set during the message. If the calling party has indicated a desire to obtain more information with respect to the advertisement, when the call to the called party is completed, the public service provider will automatically connect the calling party to a system that will provide additional audio information concerning the advertisement. Advantageously, the public service provider will connect the calling party to the system designated by the company placing the advertisement. A data terminal placing a data call will receive advertisements in a similar manner.
Advantageously, the public service provider provides the service via a local central office telephone switching system. The customers connected to the local central office may be grouped into a plurality of classes with each class being based on the social demographics of the customer plus other criteria. Advantageously, each customer may be considered as an individual and the advertisements are placed on the basis of an individual or a group based on the desires of the advertisers. For example, older couples tend to eat out more frequently than couples with young children. Hence, the central office would direct advertisements for finer restaurants to the older couples and advertisements for fast foods (specializing in children) to the younger couples. If the customers were divided into classes for the purpose of directing advertisements to these customers, a large number of classes could be created. For a particular advertisement, the advertisement could be directed to more than one class. The identification of the customers by social demographics and other criteria allows advertisers to pin point the audience to which their advertisements will go. Advantageously, the service provider could collect additional information if a customer indicates during the playing of the advertisement that they wish additional information from the advertiser. The ability of an advertiser to pin point the recipients of their advertisements so precisely will make the capability extremely valuable for advertisers. Advantageously, different advertisements will be directed to the same class or individual depending on the time of day and the desires of the advertisers.
Not only can advertisements be supplied by the public service provider via a telephone but a data terminal attempting to establish data service would have data messages defining the advertisement sent to the data terminal while the data terminal is attempting to log on to a data system via the central office. In addition, advertisements could be sent to data terminals for personal computers when the terminal is attempting to gain Internet access via a switching system other than a telephone switching system such as a service provider providing Internet access via a cable system.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of illustrative embodiments of the invention considered together with the drawing.